As one example of automatic banking equipments, an automated teller machine (ATM) enables a user to enjoy various banking services, such as depositing and drawing, offered by banks or credit card companies, without resort to the intervention of a clerk. As the user inserts a bankbook or a credit card into the ATM through an insertion slot, the ATM helps the user to do banking transactions by identifying the user based on information stored in the bankbook or the credit card and displaying a guide note on a display screen. The details of the banking transactions rendered in the ATM are stored in a storage memory of the ATM and, at the same time, are printed on the bankbook and a transaction slip which is to be presented for the user. Cashes or banknotes are then dispensed to the user by the ATM, thus completing the banking transactions.
A large number of cheques are received at a bank window when customers make payment or remittance using the cheques instead of cash. On this occasion, the clerk at the bank window verifies the cheques received from the customers and endorses on the back side of the cheques for official receipt in the case that the verification reveals no abnormality. Each and every cheque thus received is scanned by a scanner to store the image of the cheques in preparation for later information reference.
Such a cheque receiving task is manually conducted by the clerk, which may pose a variety of problems, including errors possibly caused by the manual works, delay in dealing with the duties, reduction in working efficiency and demand for increased manpower. In addition, the manual cheque receiving operation involves a prolonged waiting time from the view point of customers and hence makes the customers feel time-consuming and inconvenient.
In order to achieve a cheque-depositing capability, there has been proposed a side-car module wherein a separate cheque-depositing module is installed immediately next to the ATM side-by-side. However, such a side-car module has a drawback in that an additional space is further required to install it next to the ATM.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,927 discloses apparatus and methods of reviewing deposited cheques wherein a user inserts a card into a card reader slot of a cheque-depositing ATM. A cheque to be deposited is then inserted into a cheque input/output slot, after which the amount to be deposited is entered. A cheque transportation mechanism receives the cheque and conveys it along a cheque moving path for subsequent processing. The cheque is imaged and verified through communication with a remote bank facility. If the cheque is determined to be unacceptable, it is returned back to the user through the cheque input/output slot. However, if the cheque is acceptable, the amount of the cheque is deposited into the user's account and the cheque is conveyed to and stored at a storage bin, at which time a printer makes endorsement on the cheque.
In such a cheque-depositing ATM referred to above, the depositing transaction has to be performed on a single cheque leaf basis. In a hypothetical case where two or more cheque leaves are overlapped one above another as they are inserted into the ATM, accurate information can be acquired for one cheque leaf exposed to the outside, but the remaining cheque leaf or leaves is kept concealed and therefore cannot be processed accurately. To avoid such an instance, the presence of plural cheque leaves should be detected in the cheque-depositing process so that the depositing transaction can be performed only for a single cheque leaf with the remaining ones returned to the user.
For the reasons stated above, a strong demand has existed for a means capable of accurately and reliably detect the presence of plural cheque leaves in the cheque-depositing ATM.